


An Unnecessary Rescue

by gentlesquid_andink



Category: The Brave (TV 2017)
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Accidental Plot, But the feminist kind, Enthusiastic Consent, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, Not Suitable/Safe For Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 13:14:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14619306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlesquid_andink/pseuds/gentlesquid_andink
Summary: Well. If there isn't going to be a Season 2, then we'll never know it didn't happen like this...





	An Unnecessary Rescue

Every once in a while, the team headed to a bar at the edge of base. Usually they stuck to themselves post-mission, preferring the interstitial safety of their group for processing what their sense of duty brought into their lives. Sometimes, though, the lick of adrenaline and the way they lived on top of each other necessitated a night out. 

The bar was there because the base was there; locals steered clear if they didn’t want to mingle with the American soldiers who populated its dimly lit space. McG was surveying tonight’s crowd from his and Top’s spot at the bar. The bartender was a friend of his. He smirked when he dropped off more than one napkin with blurred inky script in front of the doc with their drinks. 

“Well, now. What are we feeling like tonight?” 

Top was distracted, turning his glass in his hand. He didn’t drink when he was feeling like this - too many memories of where that could lead. McG took notice when he ordered a second round and turned towards him, sitting sideways on his stool. “You want to share?” 

Adam looked up. McG was holding out one of the napkins between his first two fingers. “You can take your pick, get someone to take those heavy thoughts off your shoulders.”

He was about to politely decline and maybe excuse himself from the night out entirely when he saw McG’s face sober. The doc nodded over Dalton’s shoulder, so he turned to see what was going on. Jaz was at the far end of the bar behind a row of folks waiting on drinks. He’d seen that look before as she decided the best course of action in the field. The guy she had let chat her up almost as soon as they got here had his hand around her arm. 

This wasn’t good. 

Apparently, McG agreed. “Yo, you wanna go bust his sadistic hopes and dreams or should I?”

Top didn’t move, waiting to see what Jaz was going to do. Slinky smile, stepping forward to grab the drinks ready for them at the bar. Evade, rather than confront. They used this strategy often, he knew why it was tactically preferable. But then the guy caught her hand in his and refused to let her get too far away and that was unacceptable. 

McG wasn’t watching them. He was watching Adam watch whatever scene was unfolding with their girl. “Go ahead, Top.”

He sighed, ducked his chin, and stayed still. "She's a fucking ninja. She's fine."

The exasperation in McG's arm hitting the bar was not subtle; neither was the look of disbelief on his face. "You're gonna let your girl take that? What, because you're too busy being right about protocol?"

"McGuire."

"Hmm, that's what I thought," he replied as he turned back to the bar. Top quirked his head. "You didn't even try to say she wasn't your girl."

Adam left his whiskey on the bar and moved through the crowd to the other side of the room.

oOoOXxXOoOo

He thought about approaching Jaz and asking if she needed any assistance, he really did. She should get to make that call. By the time he was across the bar, though, he just kept moving until he was up next to Jaz, wrapping his arm around her back to press her into him as he found her mouth and kissed her. He felt her surprise come out in a little squeak. She didn’t pull away, though, and she didn’t hit him. Good. That was good. Maybe even more than he deserved. Then her arm was sliding up his and her fingers were in his beard and he felt her tongue slip into his mouth and she was kissing him back. 

“Really?” The asshole couldn’t take a hint. Did he actually think he stood a chance with her? Jaz gave Top an almost imperceptible nod as they caught their breath.

The smile on Top’s face was all for show, Jaz knew, but she loved seeing his cheeks puff like that. “Anthony, was it? Sorry - didn’t know my ride was here.” She kept herself tucked into Top’s side while she delivered the bad news to her aborted pickup.

He did not take it gracefully. “You thought you’d just - what? Get a few free drinks? Rather than politely declining?”

“Whoa. No need to cause a scene, buddy. It wasn’t a commitment or anything.”

The way he snickered and let his eyes mockingly rove across their midsections where they were still cuddled together made Top see red. “Yeah, no kidding.”

Jaz pressed back into Top, a small, silent gesture literally pushing him back from the situation. “Let’s just find a new spot, yeah?” She suggested over her shoulder. He looked down at her and saw how much she didn’t want to deal with this further. When he nodded, it felt like the air was taken out of him. The night was up and down and he wasn’t sure he was keeping up.

Instead of heading back toward McG, he moved them past the bar and just inside a short hallway. He knew he was perversely hoping Anthony the Asshole could still see them, get a taste of what he was missing. It was possessive and not his right and he really didn’t care right now. Fucker had messed with Jaz. 

Jaz, who was turning around to face him and looking...grateful? Her situational awareness kicked in and she scanned the bar. Adam saw her nod and he turned to see McG nodding back in their direction. When he looked back at Jaz, her face was tight with irritation. “Asshole’s watching.”

“What do you want me to do, Jaz?” He asked it now, low and trying his best not to crowd her. She stepped back anyway and looped her fingers into his jeans, pulling him with her. 

“I don’t want him - it’s like he’s still degrading me, like I have no choice in the matter.” She huffed and he automatically threaded his hands in her hair. So softly, he brushed his thumb across her proud jaw. “You always have that choice. Don’t let him ruin that.”

“Can you - would you mind helping me show him that? Is that okay?” If he had to look at a damaged, pleading expression to match her words, Adam was going to go hit the guy. So he leaned in and kissed her instead. Quick, convincing. “Yeah, Jaz.” And again. He nuzzled into her neck, making a good show of it. “S’okay. Like this?”

She wrapped her hands up his shoulders and moved back further until she was against the wall. His left hand came up to her hip, rubbing over the ridiculously tight pants she was wearing. Holding her back a bit while he made it look like he couldn’t get enough. Not that they were taught how to make out as a diversionary tactic, but this wasn’t Adam’s first fake kiss. He knew exactly how to maximize his moves to their advantage without making this awkward. 

Except then he was kissing at her neck while facing the bar and he made the mistake of automatically searching out his team. He was operating on field instinct and he didn't catch himself until it was too late. McG was watching them with his mouth slightly parted and a triumphant expression. Was that a flush at his ears? 

“Don’t look now, but McG’s getting an eyeful, too.” And this time when he pressed his mouth to her pulse point, Jaz moaned and arched into him. Fuck. That sounded real. That press of her hips up into his? That was...unnecessary and hot and so good. He couldn’t stop himself from pressing an answering hum into her mouth. Her mouth chased his when he moved back and opened under him as he gave in to the desire to keep this going. 

“That got you going a bit, Jazzy? Showing him what you’re choosing tonight?”

He meant the asshole at the bar, meant it to keep things light. It came out gravelly and a bit too raw with need instead. This time when she moved towards his mouth, he kept just out of distance. Both of them were breathing heavy. Hell, this wasn't what he meant to start up.

oOoOXxXOoOo

Adam took half a step back. “Think we were convincing enough?” He needed to regain control over the situation; this wasn’t supposed to get his blood going. He had a handle on his occasional, wayward, not-at-all-professional thoughts about his sniper, he did.

“Maybe we should ask McG…” Jaz hid behind some of that competitive spirit that was so acceptable on this team. With this CO. She thought Top saw through it, the way his eyes shifted from hazy to assessing. If he did, he wasn’t saying anything. Maybe he needed her to tuck herself back into being just another member of his team. 

Maybe she had no idea what he needed.

“I have a confession.” That open pleading look was the same one he pulled when he knew he’d done something to screw with Jaz’s carefully hoarded pleasures, like eaten the last poptart or snagged the only new pillow in commissary. She narrowed her eyes and raised a playful eyebrow. “What did you do?”

Adam rolled sideways and pressed his back against the wall next to her, away from the bustle of the bar. “I may have been getting a bit mopey. He sent me over to you.” Adam settled against the wall a bit further, arms behind his back, before continuing to draw his point. “You know how McG is - always taking care of his team.”

Jaz stared straight ahead as she nodded slowly. “And this was a two-for-one, hunh?”

“Yep.”

Jaz sized him up with a sideways glance: took in the way he had tucked his arms out of the way, head back against the wall. Holding himself so self-contained in contrast to a few minutes ago when he had been all arms and legs and movement against her. 

She kept her voice light, laced with the deadpan humor that was her usual fallback position. Conveying a sense of normalcy between them seemed important. “Worked for me. How you doing?” 

His entire body was thrumming; he was pretty sure McG could sense it from where he was chatting up some blonde who had taken over Adam’s spot. Fuck. How come he felt like he was winning and losing at the same time?

“Should I tell you now that I know I’m your commanding officer and that how we handle this is entirely up to you? Or should I wait until we’re back on base?

Jaz had on her scheming face. The skip of his heart and the flutter low in his belly was unstoppable. Adam tried to tell himself not to read too much into the current situation. 

“Those are two options…” 

Jaz pushed off the wall and moved to stand in front of Top. He looked down at her with indulgence written in the quirk of his mouth. She was pretty sure his deep well of watchfulness was about to run out. If she played this right. He had the same look in his eyes that he got when he resented how much he needed something, like stitches or medevac or a calm hand smoothing out his nerves. Thinking of how Top responded best to those situations, Jaz put a firm hand against the center of his chest and pinned him.

Jaz found McG across the bar and waited until he felt her eyes and looked up. “Or we could get revenge…?” she spoke into Adam’s ear. He couldn’t help tipping his head back even further, arching into her hand. He turned his head, saw McG watching them instead of the very lovely person right in front of him. Felt the press of Jaz’s hand pushing him further back on his hands, her mouth just barely above his neck. He swallowed a moan. “What were you thinking?”

“Mmm, maybe we should mess with McG’s head a little.” He felt her teeth scrape over the tendon in his neck, just barely. “Make him think he’s actually gotten us to do...this.”

Adam was leaning up against the wall in a dimly lit nook in a bar with very hard, very interested bits pressed up against the unlikely give of his sniper. He was pretty sure McG _had_ gotten them to do whatever ‘this’ was. It was McG’s gaze he held as he nodded slowly, Jaz’s hands holding him in place as her mouth moved more firmly on his neck.

“Ohhh. Mm.” He thought he saw McG flush a bit before his eyes closed against the tide of pleasure. This wasn’t Jaz playing into his rescue. This was something closer to _mutual_ and _personal_ and _really fucking hot._

“You on board then?”

He turned back to Jaz. With his arms still pressed behind him, he chased into her mouth. She may have teasingly evaded a few times to get him to confirm, “So on board, Jazzy,” before finally allowing him to dip into her, moving his mouth against hers. It was her turn to moan then and it made him unfold from the wall, surge forward until she pushed him right back. Fuck. He forgot she knew just what he needed when he was putting himself out there, all vulnerable and needy and begging for some relief. 

They made out just like that, up against the wall barely in view of the bar, but very definitely enjoying their second excuse of the evening. This time, Adam had nowhere to go when Jaz’s hips chased his. She was rubbing up against him, the friction driving him from glad to be of service to chasing his own pleasure within minutes. Her mouth kept gliding over his and one hand was fisted in his hair now. 

He hadn’t been this hard up in public in a long while. “Jaz…” She curled into his body and hummed into his chest. “Jazzy. We gotta, uh. What’s Phase III?”

That permeated whatever they had gotten lost in between them. “Hunh?”

“There a Phase III for this operation?”

She sniggered and it was so like her and yet so unexpected that Adam found himself chuckling under his breath despite his growing discomfort. “Operation: Eyeful? ...Operation: In Control?” He couldn’t help it, his hips jumped a bit with that one.

Adam wound his hand around the back of her head and smiled. “Operation: Whatever You Want.” 

Was that putting too much out there? Was he abusing his position?

“Ow!” Nope. Not to worry. Jaz punched him and admonished, “No getting all mushy - not until we figure out Phase III!” 

He just reeled her in and held her lightly against him. She said he could get mushy. When they figured this out. Maybe Preach was right when he sent knowing looks their way.

Adam was trying to calm down enough to ask her about heading home when he felt her stand up straighter, lose the looseness from her limbs. Adam followed her line of sight and caught up to the situation. McG had left, the blond he’d been chatting up nowhere in sight, either. Their absence seemed to jolt Jaz out of whatever had allowed her to play along this far. Her voice was small and serious as she confessed, “I didn’t think this far ahead.” But her head was resting in the middle of his chest and her arms stayed wrapped around his waist. She wasn’t bailing. 

“S’ok. We’re pretty good at improvising, you and me.”

That genuine smile on her lips when he pulled her attention back to him made it unfairly difficult to insist they step back from whatever this had been. Captain Adam Dalton, brilliant tactician and decorated officer in special forces, abandoned Phase III. 

“Let’s just head back, yeah? I say we count this as a success.”

She guffawed and pulled back, getting ready to follow his lead. “You think?”

“Hell yeah.” And they headed for the door.

oOoOXxXOoOo

As they walked back to the jeep, Jaz asked, “Why did you need taking care of, earlier when McG sent you in as the cavalry?”

He didn’t say anything, but he let some of the jealous rage he’d felt at seeing someone else macking on his girl shine through on his face. 

Jaz tucked her chin and thought how easily he had stepped into her space, rather than talking the guy into leaving. Maybe she’d been underestimating how much McG had been playing both sides in his efforts to convince them their attraction wasn’t a problem to be ignored.

They didn’t say another word as they drove back across base to the quonset hut.

oOoOXxXOoOo

Once inside, Jaz and Top seemed to settle back into their normal orbit, which was to say the exchanging of loaded looks and moving in sync, without a word but with a common unspoken goal. Neither one felt the need to make excuses or hash out the ramifications of their makeout session. They both started down the hall to the dorm, headed to their own bunks.

McG opened his door just as they were passing. Jaz - who never startled - jumped a bit, like a kid sneaking a boy into her parents’ house. But they weren’t - sneaking or together or...crap. She was gonna go off book again.

“We thought you were, you went home with - whatever her name is. The blonde.”

McG raised his eyebrows. “Nah. Turns out it wasn’t really my scene tonight. What about you two?”

Bastard had made sure to be home so he could call her bluff. “Oh don’t mind us,” she flippantly called over her shoulder as she pushed Adam through her door.

oOoOXxXOoOo

Top was at a loss of what to do next. While Jaz went about getting ready for bed, he shuffled around just inside the door. By the time she stripped down to some lacy panties, a sexy bra he’d never seen, and got into bed, he realized she was maybe calling his bluff, too. 

She slipped her hand under the sheets and, when he realized what she was doing, was about to do, his blood rushed back south so fast he swore he got dizzy.

“Jaz!”

“Shhhh. McG’s listening, you know he is. You can either stay or sneak back to your own room - either way, I’m not about to go without.” She licked her lips and closed her eyes. “It’s been a bit of a night…”

Adam’s face darkened and he stilled, rooted where he stood just beyond the end of her bed. “I can stay?”

“Adam. You were just grinding up against me in public well after your initial bout of chivalry. While I distinctly remember enjoying. Yes, you can stay.”

He swallowed against the rush in his head. With Jaz’s other hand beginning to wander on her belly and thigh above the sheet, he wasn’t hoping for eloquence. Just confirmation of a few basics. 

“I don’t want you to feel obligated.”

She scoffed. It was Jaz - she thought she was invincible. But this was important. 

“Obligated to what? Get off after making out with my hot friend while McG tries really hard not to listen next door?” 

“Jaz.”

“If you’re staying, you don’t have to just watch…”

Her hand slipped inside her panties and her self-teasing pleasure washed over her face. 

“You can get off, too, Adam.”

That was a given at this point. Hearing her say it opened up something hot in his veins. 

She grasped his arm with her free hand and tugged. He let himself be pulled forward until he was leaning over her, perpendicular to her body, one knee next to her hip. He fell right into her mouth, kissing her like they’d never stopped.

“What do you want?” he asked. She kept tugging his hand until she had him cupping her breast, massaging her as he hummed into her neck. “You feel so good, Jazzy.” He dipped a finger under the lace and caught her nipple. 

“Oh! Mmm.”

“Shhhh…” he murmured into her ear. “I’m gonna make you come, but you gotta stay quiet. Can you do that?”

She nodded and nodded and bit her lip as he pulled the sheet down. He slid his hand down her side to join hers. Jaz moved her fingers out of the way as his thicker digits probed her entrance. She arched into them as he filled her with two fingers, then swiped his thumb over her clit. “God! Just -” he covered her mouth to swallow her sounds as she thrust up against him. He didn’t tease her, just built a steady rhythm that had her falling apart in minutes. When she came, she moaned in sync with the waves rippling against his fingers.

She would almost be embarrassed at how quickly she came if he weren’t clearly just as desperate. At some point while he had been getting her off, Adam had undone his jeans and pulled himself out. Now as she watched, still catching her breath, he closed his eyes and jerked himself.

“Ugghhh.” He was so close.

She giggled, causing his eyes to snap open. Jaz was still panting and sated against the sheets. Jesus.

“I’ve been hard for hours, Jaz. I gotta…”

She sat up and he moved back with her, letting her stay in his space as he tugged himself. She reached for his hand and pulled it away from his dick. “Like McG always says,” fucking hell, that shouldn’t be hot, but he was too close at this point to hold anything back. Jaz wrapped her hand around him and squeezed. “We do what you want.”

“Fuck - Jaz, I. Hunh.” He licked his lips and closed his eyes against the sight of her kneeling up against him, giving him that patient look that insisted he give it up and run the show at the same time. She didn’t move, waited him out before prompting him to talk. “Adam…”

He was gonna lose it. God. “Just - I gotta, move. Please.” She glided her hand up over him, still squeezing. “Yeahhh. Ugh. That. S’good.”

So she did it again, and again, slowly speeding up. After a few strokes, she glided her other hand up over his shoulder, squeezed a moment, and continued up to grasp him by his neck. And when he came over her fist it was like she had pulled it steadily out of him. 

Maybe this was less about revenge for her than he thought. Because that felt an awful lot like it was all about him.

oOoOXxXOoOo

They were laying in bed still when she remembered what he had never answered: “What was making you mopey?”

Adam had been dozing and didn’t follow. “What?”

“You said you had been mopey, when McG sent you over to me. What was getting to you?”

The shuttering of Adam’s face happened quickly. He didn’t pull away from her, cuddled up to his side, but she could feel him shut himself away into that place he went when he thought he didn’t need anyone. “Nothing. It’s fine.” She propped herself up onto her hand and glared at him. “You don’t have to worry about it, Jazzy.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how this works. Should I go ask our matchmaker medic?” She feinted as if to get up out of bed. Jaz would do it, too - walk out of here wearing nothing but Adam’s discarded shirt and demand McG share his earlier diagnosis. Adam lunged and grabbed her around her waist. Breaking Adam’s hold wasn’t even close to a challenge for Jaz; she let herself be pulled back to the bed with him anyway. 

“He’d bust right in and ruin the afterglow,” Adam predicted. Jaz bit her lip and wondered if that’s what she was doing by bringing this up. 

Screw that. They were about more than making out and handjobs. She could remind him of that. Forcefully, if she must.

She sat up on her knees at Adam’s side and pressed her hand down over his breastbone. “Don’t blame it on Operation: Shining Armor,” Adam chuckled at that one. He didn’t even care if she was mocking the somewhat patronizing premise behind his and McG’s need to rescue her earlier. “Something was bothering you, I ask how you are, you talk to me.”

That was the voice she used in the field when he was hiding an injury or when they got back and running out of shots to call razed his nerves. Her hand was pinning him, grounding him to something steady, like they did so often for him. He supposed he did have McG to thank for that.

“I was just - I didn’t want a quick fuck with some random pick up. I thought I did going in, but - I didn’t.” 

Watching him to gauge his reaction, Jaz took first one of his hands and raised it above his head and then the other. “That’s okay.” She held them against the pillow a long moment before nodding once, decisively. “You don’t need one.”

She cuddled back against his side and Adam let the breath he’d been holding out. Her tone getting sleepier, she added, “I think you said something about ‘afterglow…’” He kissed the top of her head and shifted his arms, not back down but just under the pillow. If they were sleeping together, he was getting comfortable.


End file.
